Beneath The Surface
by Wickedgal08
Summary: Set after 3x15. Esther's spell goes wrong, causing the Originals and Elena to be trapped in the tunnels. With only one viable source of blood – Elena – and with tensions running high between the Mikaelsons and Elena, will this chaotic result of a spell designed to end their lives fuel the hatred or cause them to form an alliance instead? For my lovely friend Hazel :)


Beneath The Surface

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Summary: Set after 3x15. Esther's spell goes wrong, causing the Originals and Elena to be trapped in the tunnels. With only one viable source of blood – Elena – and with tensions running high between the Mikaelsons and Elena, will this chaotic result of a spell designed to end their lives fuel the hatred or cause them to form an alliance instead? For my lovely, gorgeous, sensational, bubbly, crazy, fun friend Hazel :)

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There's a shift in the spell Esther instinctively can feel, and she begins to chant louder and louder, as if trying to retract the slip of tongue which had occurred due to the stress of seeing her three sons standing before her, defiant in nature, united in purpose.

But magic isn't something you can fix like a writing error on a page. And when she lets her eyes slip upwards, they've all disappeared, including Finn, and she lets out a bark which could be disguising a curse word, so frustrated is she by this change in events. It isn't until moments later when she realises all the elements needed to get her this far – blood from the doppelganger, her children themselves – are all infused within the confinements of a spell she's now lost control of.

The ingredients burn and distort in the fire which surrounds her.

She glances around, seeking out the Bennett witches, but they've fled. Her alliances lies with the spirits of nature, her sister witches, but as she tries to coax them back into being, something wrenches her back, breaking the pentacle she formed earlier, rendering all her magic useless. Something inside her tells her they've abandoned her as well, but for what reasons she has yet to determine, leaving her no choice but to sweep away, her attempts at fixing her mistake, on this occasion, stifled.

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Elena becomes acutely aware something has changed.

Trapped in the area Rebekah, thankfully, cannot reach, she clings to the wall furthest away from her enemy, the smell of gasoline intense, her stomach churning at the smell. Her palms are sweaty, and her heart is racing, and this fear of dying down here, without making amends with those she's hurt, consumes her.

The fact Rebekah hasn't uttered anything in a while worries her, but she cannot pluck up the courage to investigate. She tries to breathe – in, out, in, out, in out; the usual pattern redesigns itself to accommodate the rapid beating of her heart – but finds it's a difficult chore. She's trapped in every way – mind, body and soul.

The sound of male voices suddenly has her intrigued; she pauses, waiting to see if Stefan and Damon will appear, but all she can really tell is that whoever else is here, they are occupying Rebekah's attention, and for now that gives Elena the moment of sanctuary she needs. Sliding down the wall, she sinks to her knees, giving herself a moment to breathe and find that calming rhythm again. She glances at the palm of her hands, which are scratched and bruised. Somewhere along her thigh is a painful mark from when she tripped trying to get away from Rebekah. This whole experience has marked her physically and emotionally, and being kidnapped by malicious Originals really should be no surprise to her at this stage, yet she continues on as if it's just another mildly noteworthy event to jot in her diary later on.

A twinge of a familiar accent catches her ears, and combined with the brush of masculinity to it, she forms a picture in her head of who else is down here, and it's neither one of her knights in shining armour.

She shudders, but keeps herself together, her eyes set to glare mode, every fibre of her body tensed for a fight she knows she cannot possibly win. As Rebekah flashes into view, her entire face scrunched up with mingled discomfort and wry amusement, Elena's eyes focus on her brother, Klaus, who wears an expression of confusion and anger.

"Well, I see you've been busy," he spits at his sister.

"We've just been getting to know each other better." Rebekah delivers an award winning smile that they both can see through at once. "Right, Elena?"

"Why is he down here?" Elena asks through gritted teeth.

"Interesting story, love," Klaus intervenes, all the while glaring at a random spot behind her. "My mother was just in the middle of carrying out the spell that would result in our untimely demise when all of a sudden her tongue slipped, and now we're trapped down here, like the _happy _family we are."

"We – " Elena feels dread trickle down her spine. "As in - ?"

"Brother," trills a new voice, one she isn't familiar with, but it sings of arrogance, a boyish innocence attached to it. "Why have we all congregated in this tunnel of misery when there are _so_ many others to choose from?" A youthful face pops up between Klaus and Rebekah, complimented with a set of piercing eyes which take in everything with amusement. "Oh, I see."

She suddenly feels exposed, caged like an animal in a zoo. She watches as one of the Original brothers – Kol, is it? – appraises her, taking in every inch of her before he promptly loses interest.

"So you're all down here?" she breathes, surprised.

"Looks that way," chimes a fourth voice.

This voice she knows. She can't help but recoil a little, despite the fact she trusted – _trusts _– the owner of that voice in different circumstances. He's the reason she's down here, the reason her life is once again at risk, and though she still wants to believe the best in him, it's hard to find that faith when all she can remember is his vice like grip as he pulled her down before jumping back up, leaving her alone in the darkness.

Elijah gives no outwardly sign that he's acknowledged her presence when he appears, but she can't deny he looks like he's out of his comfort zone. It strikes her that her position in the one area vampires can't access doesn't make her safe her at all. Rebekah's gaze doesn't look any less villainous from here, and the fact she's got her brothers as back up sends nervous chills running up and down her spine. She's never had much of a gage for danger before – look at her history after all – but now she's fully aware of the fact that they are allegedly all trapped down here for god knows how long, and they're vampires and she's human, meaning her blood is vital for keeping them alive.

She shouldn't panic by any means, but it's important to think of every aspect of this situation, because she's acted rashly before and it's gotten her nowhere, so now she has to be logical – logical, and smart.

The sound of a fifth voice consumes the attention of the others, and it takes her a moment to place it with a face. The anger and barely suppressed betrayal in the tone of each Original family member helps her confirm the identity of this individual as being Finn Mikaelson, the one so eager to lead his family to death.

"Oh look, it's the sacrificial lamb in a den of lions," quips Kol. "How did you end up down here, _brother_?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," retorts the haughty tone associated with the other brother. "Need I remind you all we're all linked so if you try anything with me, you all fall with me."

"Shame," comes the contemptuous purr from Klaus' mouth. "I would've enjoyed ripping you apart for the shame you've brought on this family."

"Really, Niklaus? You want to talk about shame? The bloodshed you've all caused over the centuries quite frankly outmatches the total casualties any human war has ever produced."

"Oh cry me a river, Finn. You don't care about humanity."

"I care about my own!"

Kol gives a fake yawn which stretches across the tunnels in an echo which reaches Elena, who clings to herself as she keeps herself from falling apart.

"As fascinating as this all is, can we talk about how we're going to get the hell out of here?" he complains. "I'm getting _thirsty, _if you catch my drift."

"_And?_ You should've fed before we set off to stop this attempt on our lives, Kol."

Suddenly Kol emerges into view, taking in Elena with a new level of appreciation that instantly has her on her feet, her back pressed as much against the wall as is humanly possible.

"Want to come here and give us a donation, darling? I'm awfully parched," he enquires, a mock pout twisting his lips.

"Go to Hell," is her frosty answer.

"Ooh, she's feisty," Kol proclaims, a surprised smile dawning on his face as if he'd expected her to be otherwise. "But that still doesn't solve my problem."

"You go near her and I rip your lungs out through your mouth," Klaus growls from somewhere behind him.

"And our dear big brother places higher value on a doppelganger than the needs of his own family...again." Kol gives a dramatic sigh. "Why do we continue to be surprised at this completely unsurprising turn of events?"

"Shut up," Rebekah snarls, suddenly back in view, the rage etched into every line along her face. "Everyone just _shut up. _Let's get back to _my_ plan."

She strikes a match, the flame lighting the darkness, and Elena instantly recalls the threat made before. She wonders if her stubbornness really will be the death of her, because even seeing the possibility of her death has no effect upon her feet, which stay stuck to the ground.

"What are you doing?" Klaus snarls, moving his arm back to knock the match out of Rebekah's hand, but she neatly dodges him.

"We have no idea how long we're gonna be down here, and I'm not going to be the only girl stuck with a bunch of male chauvinists who think more of themselves than their own siblings," she retorts. "So Elena, new deal – either you join me and I promise not to harm a damn hair on your holy head, or you can stay in there and burn, give us all a good show. It's up to you."

Elena realises she's never felt this sense of hatred before, this collective hatred for a bunch of narcissistic, ruthless, borderline insane individuals that dare to call themselves a family. Klaus looks from her to the match, his stare so intense she feels like he's silently threatening her somehow, even though this isn't his showdown for once; it's hers and Rebekah's.

She contemplates her options. It's literally a life and death situation, but it's also a literal interpretation of leaping out of the frying pan only to end up in the fire. Who out there will really guarantee the security of her life apart from Klaus? Even then, Klaus' reasons for keeping her alive are purely selfish, motivated by greed and power. Elijah – he may value innocent life, but is his vision of her tainted by her betrayal? Could she really be classed as innocent anymore in the depths of his eyes? Kol clearly doesn't give a crap either way, and Finn has proven to be indifferent to the plights of his family.

They bicker and brawl like infants, but Elena still sees a bond between them – at least some of them anyway, despite the fact right now they huddle like broken toys, waiting for an end to their misery.

As Rebekah throws the lighted match in her direction, Klaus lets out a roar, and she makes her decision in that moment. She dodges the match, throws herself in Rebekah's direction, closes her eyes, and finds herself literally in the arms of the she-devil herself.

"Wise choice," Rebekah comments wryly, her eyes locking with hers. "To be perfectly honest, that match wouldn't have landed on you. Had you not moved, it would've landed a little to the left of you." The blonde grins down at her. "Now about that little stunt you pulled earlier – "

Elena's head is wrenched back, and teeth plunge into her skin, producing a low gasp of pain from her lips. Klaus, who had been watching this display a little too keenly, takes a step forward, presumably to prevent his sister from going too far, but Rebekah surprises him and pulls back, wiping her mouth with a look of satisfaction dawning across her face.

"What the hell, Rebekah?" Klaus snarls.

"She's bleeding, therefore she's hurt, and I get my revenge without killing her," Rebekah explains, in a matter of fact tone that drives Elena's blood levels to boiling point, "and I even got a free snack into the bargain."

Klaus gives her a furious stare.

"You know Kol isn't going to be able to resist that," he points out, gesturing to Elena's openly weeping wound on her neck. "What else do you get from this little exercise exactly?"

"Entertainment."

Elena shoots Rebekah an intense stare, pressing her hand against her open wound, unable to help the words which tumble from her lips like a desperate plea for help.

"I thought you promised not to hurt me," she challenges.

"Actually, I promised not to harm a hair on your holy head," Rebekah, condescendingly, corrects before patting her head in a manner that infuriates Elena beyond belief. "Your hair, though dull and lifeless, remains intact, just as I promised." Then her eyes darken. "Now sit down and shut up before I break something."

Shaking with barely repressed anger, Elena finds herself sliding to the ground, drawing her knees to her chest, no longer encompassed in her own personal sanctuary, glaring aimlessly ahead, allowing her rage to drive her consciousness into forgetting the fact she's never been in more danger than she is right now. The Originals are a volatile bunch even on their best days, so throw them in a situation beyond their control, while emotions run high between them anyway, and it spells trouble for them all.

Satisfied at having reigned in control, Rebekah delivers an award winning smile to her brother, who looks mightily uncomfortable for once, perhaps due to the fact even he cannot say what is running through her mind at this particular moment.

"Relax, Nik," she commands, suddenly losing the smile, something close to exhaustion filling her eyes. "We're not going to get anywhere with all of us at each other's throats."

"Regardless of that fact, it does beg the question how are we going to survive down here should this prove to be a spell that endures beyond the night? We're Originals, Rebekah, but we're still prone to vampire desiccation."

"We'll have to share the human," Rebekah says, her smirk back in place.

Klaus throws her a dirty look.

"Elena is – "

"- Vital for your hybrid plans, I know," she interrupts, rolling her eyes. "Our phones have no signal down here, and we don't know how long this will last. We need to keep our strength up. We won't take enough to kill her."

Klaus still looks uncertain.

"Your vendetta with Elena convinces me otherwise, Rebekah."

Rebekah rolls her eyes again.

"You don't have your handy daggers here to put me down should I go against your wishes," she points out, "so I guess you'll have to put your faith in my self-control."

"I don't have faith in anything other than you'll understand the consequences should you do anything that displeases me," he growls.

Rebekah recoils as if he'd slapped her.

Elena observes all this quietly, coming to the conclusion of all the dynamics within the Original family, the Klaus and Rebekah one has to be the most intense. She can see warring emotions flicker across their faces, as they both cling to the idea that the other will remain loyal to whatever unspoken promises sealed their bond. They constantly clash on everything, but at the end of the day, there's still something among the wreckage of their relationship worth salvaging, and they both know it.

And that's the exact reason she'd daggered Rebekah the night of the Homecoming Dance.

Family is family, no matter what misdeeds litter the pages of the history books. People have underestimated the bond before, but not her. She realises the importance of family, and as punishment she's had hers slowly stripped from her, and she broods on this, her hand slowly slipping from the wound as drowsiness threatens to claim her.

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At some point, Elena catches a half murmured conversation between Kol and Elijah, and she latches onto the words like a prayer.

"...managed to establish contact with the Salvatore brothers. They talked to their witch, who seems to think Esther mistakenly cast a spell designed to keep us all in one place."

"So why hasn't she taken advantage of that?"

"It's a pretty powerful spell, even for someone like her. Miss Bennett seems to believe the duration of our captivity depends upon the cycle of the moon. She doesn't know when it'll end, but she's researching the answer to that question as we speak. We should get answers soon."

Elena sleepily smiles at the mention of Bonnie's name, which right now feels like a fragment of a book she hasn't read in ages but still knows so well. The thought of being down here for a long time frightens her, but she takes courage in the fact Bonnie won't be sitting idly at this time, but searching for a way to end it quickly.

She can't really sleep, but her body needs the rest. Enduring stress takes a toll on it that isn't seen but felt; every muscle aches to just relax, and grief still gnaws at the edges of her mind, because despite all evidence to the contrary, she's not holding herself together that well at all. Jenna and John's deaths haunt her, and yet she has to continue fighting rather than being giving the allotted grieving time, which isn't fair. Every time she looks at Klaus' face, it just brings home the fact they died in vain because he's still alive, but if she dwells on that fact, she'll break down. It may be unhealthy, but denial has been a big part of why mentally she's managed to cope with it all so far.

She doesn't know where Rebekah and Klaus have gone, but she isn't exactly eager to find out. Part of her wants to crawl back into the no-vampires zone, but doing so will only infuriate her current company, and she's learned to keep the peace where they're concerned.

Elena fights tiredness to stay awake, noting the shadows in the background even if they've fallen into silence. Eventually they too disappear, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She could use this opportunity to be productive somehow, but again her body resists the urge, pleading with her to just relax even though the situation is about the furthest from a relaxing one you could even get.

She instantly gets that prickle of fear you get when you know you're being watched. The limited lighting down here diminishes each second, so it's hard to make out which of the Originals is watching her. Her guard is up all the same, and she doesn't want to breathe a word until she absolutely has to; somehow she senses her resignation will be made clear the moment she opens her mouth, and she doesn't want to give them satisfaction of knowing they're slowly draining her of energy.

"You know you're still bleeding, right?" comes the soft drawl of Finn.

It's a habit at this point for her hand to reach her neck, caressing the area that hurts, aware when she pulls her fingers back they will be covered in blood. The wound is still exposed, still weeping blood, but she has nothing other than her scarf that she can use to staunch the wound.

With a sigh, she tightens her scarf, positioning it directly over the wound, aware she's prolonging her survival odds by minutes, not hours. Rebekah is ensuring that if anything happens to her and her family, at least they take her down with her, and Elena understands this even if she cannot wrap her head around how one family can be capable of such cruelty. She's gone to some pretty risqué lengths herself, but only in the name of protecting the people she loves.

"I'll heal," she mumbles, almost willing someone to offer her their wrist even though in all likeliness she'll probably turn it down on principle alone.

You don't get something for nothing with this family – that's the lesson she's learned so far in her short life.

"I must apologise for the abhorrent way my family has behaved to you and your friends," Finn murmurs. "If I had my way, we would all be in our graves by now."

She finds his comments interesting, and has to wonder whether he's generally repulsed by his family or just one of those rare vampires with a death wish. He's professed to be the dullest of his siblings, yet she finds him the most interesting. He isn't spurred on to achieve his goals by any means necessary, and he certainly has little to no interest in her in regards to using her for some diabolical purpose. Every other Original, even Elijah, have previously used her for their personal gain, so to meet one whose interest in her is nothing short of circumstantial is a refreshing change of pace.

"They're still your family." To her surprise, she actually defends them, if only for the purposes of trying to work out who Finn even is as an individual. "Regardless of what they've done, do you not feel any remorse that your actions could've ended their lives tonight?"

She's well aware of the hypocrisy in her own question; if it weren't for her allowing Esther to take her blood, none of them would be here right now, but she's genuinely curious about the motives of the less notorious Mikaelson brother.

"I want to say yes," he confesses. "But I would be lying. Niklaus has expressed nothing but disdain in my direction. Kol is a reckless brat who would happily start a few dozen wars just to entertain himself. Rebekah and Elijah... they profess to value things they happily destroy on a daily basis, which makes them hypocrites." She hears him sigh in the darkness. "If there was anything good about my family, I cannot remember it."

"That's because you were a dullard, even when we were human," Klaus sneers, breaking the silence. "You missed out on all the adventures playing happy families, and where did that get you?"

"A brief moment of happiness," Finn shoots back. "How many of those can you say you've had in your existence, Niklaus? Your ridiculous desire for power will be the end of you, and what can you say you've ever achieved in your life? At least I had love, for however brief a time, and at least our mother _respects _me!"

"Boys, boys, boys," Rebekah drones, appearing by Klaus' side, looking intensely bored. "Must we continue to feud like children? Elijah's searched every inch of these tunnels. The ones which actually lead out somewhere are blocked by magic, and we cannot jump out for the same reason."

"I'm bored," Kol announced, his obnoxious voice echoing all around them. "Come on, Nik. You're supposedly the smart one – think of a way out of here."

"I may be smarter than all of you put together, but how the hell am I supposed to outsmart a witch?" Klaus growled.

"Nice. Insult the intelligence of the people you're stuck with. I guess I was wrong. You're not that smart at all."

She hears the scuffling associated with brawling brothers and resists the urge to roll her eyes.

Her fingers scratch at her wound, and she gives a shudder, suddenly freezing cold, yet her skin feels like it's on fire. Maybe she's coming down with something, which would be typical; luck to her is what impulse control is to Damon – nonexistent. She can pretend she's okay, but in reality her life is just a house of cards falling majestically from grace.

She disappears inside her own mind, retreating to a safer place, the blood still flowing down her neck but at a much slower pace.

Nausea starts to overtake her, not to mention the fact she's close to passing out, but she soldiers on until she hears someone actively mention her.

"She's not looking too good. Someone feed her blood, I don't want my only fresh blood supply dying on me before I get chance to taste."

"One would only hope that one day you might actually wake up with a sensitive bone somewhere in your body, Kol."

"No one in this family gets my humour, I swear to God – "

"We get it. It's just not funny," Klaus dryly remarks, bending down towards her, biting down on his wrist before extending it. "Here you go, sweetheart. Can't have you dying on us, can we?"

She's tempted to ignore his gesture completely, but she's cold and secretly frightened and just doesn't feel well in herself at all, so reluctantly she takes it, feeling like vampire blood might as well be a part of her diet from now on, so often has she had to take it to heal herself.

When she peels herself from his wrist, she has about a minute's worth of recovery time before a set of hands drag her up from the ground, pressing her against the wall before another set of fangs pierce her skin.

She cries out, struggling ferociously, but whichever Original this is, he's strong and he's not afraid to rough her up in the name of getting blood. Her eyes confirm her suspicions, and Kol soon releases her, grinning like he's just told the funniest joke and wants her to laugh at it, his hands remaining on her as he looks her up and down.

"Tasty," he remarks, smacking his lips together, and without hesitation, she raises one defiant hand and strikes him across the face.

There's a moment where she wonders whether she's pushed him too far, but his dark eyes glisten with a kind of mad delight, even in the darkness, and she backs away in disgust when it seems he's entertained by everything, even this whole situation.

"Kol!" Klaus roars.

"Niklaus!" Kol roars back, amusement coating his voice. "Why must you all be so _dull? _Where's the sense of spontaneity in our family?"

"Maybe you should not be so quick to judge us, Kol, given what we've all put this young lady through tonight," comes the quiet voice of Elijah, and her head snaps up, vaguely surprised that he's coming to her defence all of a sudden. "We're not a family. We haven't been a family in a very long time." He walks forwards, hands in his jacket pockets, his head suitably dipped, as if he is stuck in deep contemplation. "Perhaps we shouldn't see this as a punishment, but well deserved retribution."

"For what?" Rebekah asks, looking genuinely perplexed. "All the bad things we've done have been to ensure our survival, Elijah."

"And what did we lose in the process?" Elijah counters. "We've lost ourselves. We spend half of eternity united only to spend the other half attempting to end each other. That's not family."

Something tells her that Elijah is the one person they all willingly listen to, even if most of the time they disagree with what he has to say. He is the wisest, the most sincere, the closest to human out of all of them; disregarding Finn's summary of his character, Elena finds herself loving that part of Elijah. It's the part she's always connected with, that characteristic of awareness that means he can underline and stress what's wrong with a situation, even if he'd been the one to cause it in the first place. And he feels remorse, which is something some of his siblings can learn from, she adds to herself with only the faintest trace of bitterness scoring her thoughts.

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Minutes trickle into hours.

Cold blooms in patches along her skin, and all her layers make only a tangible difference to the fact it's _freezing _down her.

News sieves through in hourly updates. Apparently the Salvatore had been planning on turning Bonnie's mother as means of a loophole to Esther's spell, but that's now out the window. She has to be grateful for that little fact anyway; Bonnie has only just been reunited with her mother, so anything that remotely threatens their reunion would break her friend, this Elena knows without even having to think about it. As for Bonnie, the Salvatores have told Elijah that she's working to undo the spell, but even with the combined efforts of herself and her mother, it'll take time, particularly if the spell is bound by the moon.

Her wound's healed, mostly because Kol's attack came after Klaus fed her his blood, and the two events were so closely interlinked in terms of time that the remnants of vampire blood in her system were enough to heal her. But there's still the imminent danger of becoming a vampire down here. None of the others have taken blood from her – yet – but she feels their hunger as if it's a palpable force charging down the tunnels. It's only a matter of time before someone asks, and it's not as if her opinion means anything anymore – to any of them.

Her stomach growls treacherously. Her own hunger cannot be satiated easily, but she ignores the sensation, pushes it back down, and chooses instead to focus her time on remembering lyrics to trivial songs, because if she lets herself think about anything darker she'll go crazy. Her throat is dry too, but yet if she lets her tongue probe around, she can still feel remnants of Klaus' blood in her mouth, and it makes her want to vomit. She's either a blood bank, or a blood processor, expected to give and take blood like her own word isn't worth a damn. At least her ancestor, Katherine, for all her faults managed to get out of that life before she'd had chance to be forced into it. Elena has to admire her for that, if nothing else.

"Elena," Elijah murmurs, and she looks up, noticing in the pale shadows his silhouette has joined hers. She has mixed feelings about this. "I must apologise for putting you in this situation. It was abhorrent of me to put you through something like this."

"You had your reasons," she murmurs, wishing she could erase this guilt when truthfully she owes these people nothing. _Nothing._

"Maybe so, but they are still contemptuous when I regard all that has happened here tonight. Mother made us vampires, but she didn't make us monsters. We did that to ourselves. I wish my siblings could understand the gravity of the situation."

"I think they listen more than you think. But you're all impulsive by nature. Damon's the same way. You act, and then you think." She looks at her own hands. "I do the opposite, and it seems to get more people hurt that way."

"You should be commended for that, Elena." She has to admit she loves the way he says her name; he pronounces every syllable with the utmost care and respect, like it's something sweet in his mouth he wishes to savour forever. "You cannot condemn yourself for being the way you are after all the terrible things that have befallen you, my family included."

She gives a half smile at that.

They fall into a companionable silence, while she ponders over his words and he takes in the sight of her, confused and broken. Eventually she rises to her feet, needing to exercise her sore limbs, and she walks aimlessly down one of the tunnels, relieved – and a little bit disappointed at the same time – when he doesn't follow.

She knows she cannot leave, at least not without supernatural help, and the Originals have made it clear none of them care about her enough to want to help. They're all stuck in their own little worlds, which frequently orbit each others' but not enough to unite them all.

Sticking her hands in her coat pockets for warmth, Elena reflects on the decisions she's made since Stefan arrived into town. Some were good, but some were bad too, costing a lot of people not quite their lives but something close to it. Damon compelling Jeremy on both occasions, though done out of love, were definitely decisions she's regretted since then. She can't deny getting her brother out of both a literal and metaphorical dark place gave her a moment's respite from worrying about him, but the consequences had come back to bite her all the same.

Maybe then she shouldn't judge certain Originals – namely, Elijah – for being rash in the heat of the moment, for doing what he needed to in order to protect his family. But there is where she draws the line at understanding anything they ever do. As twisted as it seems, this misguided, violent and bloodthirsty family, despite all outward signs pointing to the contrary, stick together, and that she can begrudgingly respect, even if nothing else about them appeals to her on any kind of level.

She walks and walks until she runs out of thoughts to distract her, and then she finds a comfortable spot and perches herself on it, yawning loudly, not to draw attention to herself but because she cannot fight this physical exhaustion anymore. She was up training at dawn, and then attempted to build bridges with Damon only to discover his sordid little affair with Rebekah, and now she's here. It frustrates her that her conscience, which is supposed to be a good thing to possess, gets her into nothing but situations like these. If irony had its own musical score, it would be playing nonstop over this very day from start to finish.

Sleep beckons her, but still she resists. It's not because she's afraid of what'll happen when she lets her guard down, but rather she's afraid of what she'll see when she closes her eyes. Nightmares she hasn't told anyone about haunt her subconscious; memories squashed into stills from a horror movie have had her bolting up in bed on some nights, sweating profusely, an empty scream hanging from her lips. She suffers more than anyone could ever guess – she's just become really good at hiding it.

Eventually though, exhaustion wins the fight, and she closes her eyes, falling into a breathing pattern that eventually settles her. Her dreams are distorted memories that, thankfully, stay memories. Her breathing hitches as the memory of her parents' deaths plays over and over in her mind, and then she feels someone grip her tight before shaking her, her eyes flying open, landing on a mildly concerned Rebekah, who quick as lightning releases her hands.

"You were whining," she clarifies, to an otherwise bemused Elena. "It was irritating me."

"How long was I out?" Elena asks, ignoring this insensitive response, well aware Rebekah uses these cruel remarks to hide her own insecurities, her own vulnerabilities.

"A couple of hours or so," Rebekah replies nonchalantly. "What were you dreaming about? Were you relieving stabbing me in the back, or maybe the time you lied directly to my brother's face and got us all into this mess? Hm? Or maybe it's another occasion – I'm sure there are plenty in your repertoire – where you betrayed someone for the sake of saving your own skin?"

Elena flushes, each insulting remark hitting her skin and settling like a rash. She's not fond of recalling each brutal time she had to be a borderline manipulator for the sake of saving her friends, but looking back, there's nothing she would change about the way she'd behaved. Maybe she would've gone about things in a different way, but fundamentally she would've still acted with the same intentions.

"I was relieving the night my parents died," she snaps, unable to stop the words spilling from her mouth, wanting to find the right words that'll make Rebekah stop being so verbally cruel to her because she just does not need this right now. "Okay? There hasn't been a single night since the accident where I haven't woken up missing them, where I haven't thought for one moment that everything that happened after then was just a dream. You want me to suffer for what I did to you, well, here's the reality, Rebekah: I suffer more than you think. I suffer every time I close my eyes. It might not be the grand torture you have in mind for me, but it's torture nonetheless."

She wonders if she's gone too far the moment the last word escapes her lips, but it seems she's silenced Rebekah, who looks at her with narrowed eyes, as if trying to determine the level of sincerity in her words. They share a tense moment, where really the conversation could go either way, and then her nemesis simply gives a toss of her hair, as if deciding tormenting her further is fruitless, and then, to Elena's surprise, sits down next to her.

"Consider yourself lucky that at least your mother didn't come back from the grave only to try and kill you," Rebekah remarks, this time the bitterness in her voice directed at someone other than Elena herself.

Elena misses a breath trying to imagine that feeling. How can you even begin to understand what it's like to mourn a parent for over a thousand years, only to erupt with joy when they're brought back into life, yet that joy itself is short lived as it turns out that parent now only regards you as a blight on an already troubled world and wishes to exterminate her entire family as a result of a mistake made a thousand years ago? She can't even begin to comprehend the mindset of Rebekah right now only that perhaps she's been making her out to be more of a villain than she actually is.

What was it she'd said to Damon?

That Rebekah, not unlike her, is just a girl, who lost her mom too young, and loves blindly and recklessly even if it consumes her.

Maybe she and Rebekah are more alike than they both could ever have thought possible, but to dwell on that thought is troubling, because she can't help but think if she ever became a vampire, would she be as impulsive as Rebekah? Would their histories of loving passionately, and grieving powerfully, sculpt them into similar beings? Or would she go completely another way and end up as Katherine 2.0?

Elena has these thoughts, whether she likes them or not. Living in a world filled with vampires and supernatural creatures with the power to kill her at any moment has her constantly questioning everything, constantly picturing herself as a vampire because it seems like there may be a point in the future where that fate befalls her. It's hard to imagine, but it's a sign of how much everything's suffocated her up until this point that she has to consider this lifestyle as being a possible course to take in the future?

The question is when push comes to shove will she be turned by choice or by reckless impulse?

"I'm sure whatever condescending views you have on my family are just bursting to come out," Rebekah remarks coldly. "Go ahead. Say it. I won't bite...much," she adds cruelly.

"I don't have anything to say except that I feel sorry for you," Elena says, shaking her head.

"Spare me your pity, Elena. I don't need or want it."

Elena doesn't really know what to say to that, only that despite their near moment she can still feel hatred radiating from Rebekah's skin, yet she's not quite sure how much of that is directed at her as opposed to her own mother. She's not looking for a bonding moment with the blonde Original at all, but the fact they are sitting here in the darkness, side by side, when only hours ago they were playing the roles of predator and prey respectively says a lot about them.

They change and adapt themselves to every situation, yet still feel emotionally compromised when it comes to dealing with people who, although they know instinctively they should hate, they cannot help but connect with. Case in point: Elena daggered Elijah before days later freeing him so that they could work together on bringing down Klaus, connecting for the briefest of moments in the process.

"For the record," Rebekah speaks, reluctance coating her voice, effectively disguising the hatred for one moment, "I'm sorry about your parents. Seventeen really is too young to have a loss that great consume you."

Elena feels a prickle of something – kinship? – stab her, and curiosity coats her tone.

"You're seventeen?"

"Technically a lot older than that," Rebekah reminds her, almost smiling. "But for all intents and purposes, I am still seventeen."

There's a note of nostalgia which interests Elena, but she doesn't probe any further into Rebekah's life. She knows enough of the story; enough to know there will be things that Rebekah will never share with anyone, little heartbreaks that broke her along the way, moments that tested her very character, fights that shaped her into the strong woman she is today.

She drifts off somewhere through this train of thought. This time her dreams are quite different, focusing on herself a thousand years down the line when the earth is still around, but very different, naturally. She sees herself as someone strong, graced by soft auburn hair, tinted with some new age colour not yet invented. The Salvatores, naturally, remain by her side, but they disappear and fade as the years roll by, until eventually she reaches the end of time, still glowing like a newborn star, and then she simply watches as the sun devours the earth with its intense heat, and somehow even after that, she survives.

Because that's what she's had to become – a survivor.

That's what she'll always have to be, and sometimes that'll mean doing things that cross into grey areas on the morality chart. But underneath all that, she still hopes to keep some shred of herself perfectly intact.

When she wakes up, she finds herself alone. She rises to her feet, staggers a little, and then searches for a familiar face. The Originals are gone, and a feeling – not hope, not relief, but something else entirely – flickers through her. Then it passes, and she's left feeling alone and betrayed, although why that surprises her she'll never know.

She returns to the spot where she fell asleep, surprised to find a note tucked where her body had been – how had she missed that? Fragile fingers fumble at the envelope, and she wonders when this was written, because it could certainly not have been done during their time in the tunnels, and when she brings the letter out, she reads it, absorbing each word with her fudge brown eyes.

_Elena._

_ The spell was tied to the cycle of the moon. When dawn broke, the spell was lifted, and Bonnie came back to assure us we were free to go. Naturally my family left without delay, and without a second thought for your fate. I apologise for that. _

_ I hate to leave nothing but a note by your side, but my family's main concern right now is to hunt down our mother, so all I can leave you is my deepest apologies over what has happened here tonight. My sister, Rebekah, assures me she has no further interest in tormenting you. I do not know what comfort that'll provide you, but I hope it at least gives you the assurance that you may have gotten through to at least one of us today with your strong and loyal nature._

_ Your compassion is a gift, Elena. Carry it with you as I will carry my regret. Always and forever. _

_ Elijah. _

She has to marvel at the effect this letter has on her, how one man's words can give her a surge of courage from out of nowhere, and forgiveness for Elijah's actions suddenly comes swift and easy, because he was doing it to protect his family, and no one can understand that better than her.

When she hears footsteps, and a familiar voice calling her name, she stuffs the letter into her pocket, and turns to greet Stefan and Damon, who look relieved to see her safe.

"Are you okay?" they ask as one.

She doesn't even know how to begin answering that, so she smiles politely, nods in answer to their question – even if it is a lie – and follows them to the place where Elijah threw her down in the first place. Stefan grips her tight before leaping gracefully out with her in toe and she gets her first taste of freedom, and boy does the air taste great in her lungs. There's an atmosphere in the tunnels that almost feels suffocating at times; she thanks her lucky stars she isn't claustrophobic, otherwise that would've been hell for her.

It strikes her as she walks between Damon and Stefan, towards Damon's car, that she felt more free down in the tunnels with a pack of killers pacing around, than she does wedged between two brothers – in both the literal and metaphorical sense. There's a choice that'll have to be made at some point, a heart that'll have to be broken, and honestly she's not sure if she'll ever be ready for that moment.

For now, she just needs – no, c_raves _– her bed, and a family that may be broken and small but who will love and appreciate her no matter what.


End file.
